As COVID rises again, Kathy sez keep on testing

With yet another virus wave testing New Yorkers’ patience with the 25-month-old pandemic, Gov. Hochul on Tuesday called on people across the state to keep using test swabs to stop the spread.

“We have come a long way in the past two years,” Hochul said in a statement released with another round of rising COVID figures. “I know first-hand how tests can help stop the spread to our vulnerable loved ones, so let’s keep using this critical tool.”

The governor herself tested positive for the virus on Sunday, caught in a spring surge that has been marked by a drumbeat of symptom-light cases among vaccinated and boosted Americans, but has nonetheless driven death tolls higher in New York recently.

Twenty-one more New Yorkers perished with the virus, the state said in its daily accounting Tuesday, reflecting a painful pall still cast by the pandemic. Last month, as the state exhaled following the ferocious omicron wave, daily death counts slipped into the single digits some days.

But hyperinfectious subvariants of the omicron strain continue to circulate, and the weeklong statewide case rate has roughly doubled over the past month, according to state data.

Treatments have improved, and 87% of adults in the state have completed an initial vaccination series, according to government figures. But the ubiquity of cases — New York has recently reported more than at any point since Feb. 3 — highlights the continued risk.

In New York City, where Mayor Adams announced the launch of a city research partnership with Columbia University meant to draw lessons from COVID, case rates appeared to be leveling on Tuesday.

Deaths and hospitalizations lag behind cases, and the picture of spread could be clouded by reduced access to testing sites after federal COVID funding ended, its extension doomed by Republican resistance on Capitol Hill.

Vaccinations and booster shots continue to provide powerful protection against the worst COVID outcomes, and Hochul told New Yorkers to “make sure you are fully vaccinated and up to date on your booster doses.”

The governor, a 63-year-old Democrat, has received two boosters. Under federal guidelines, adults over the age of 50 become eligible for another bonus jab four months after an initial booster shot.

Dr. Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York, said it is tough to tell how damaging the current surge will prove, noting that testing data remains an unreliable metric.

“There’s much less testing going on now,” Nash said. “The case estimates that we’re seeing are likely to be significant underestimates compared to prior waves.”

He still saw signs of hope in the changing seasons — but only if people take advantage, and wear masks indoors.

“I’m always encouraged by the opportunities to do more things outside during a surge,” he said. “I think it can really potentially mitigate the impact.”